Standpoint: Today I turn 35. That may sound old to some of you, young to others. I never really do a lot of pondering about my birthday. It always bothers me when people complain about their birthdays. Zip it, whiner. It could be worse. You could live in one of these six countries.

Vietnam – All birthdays are celebrated at the dawn of the New Year. Furthermore, when asked their birthday, Vietnamese people respond with the year, not the actual day. What a rip-off. I’m not one of those people who thinks the world has to stop on my birthday, but at least get me a card or write something nice on my Facebook wall.

Argentina – On your birthday, you receive ear tugs in the amount corresponding to your age. This is also a custom in Italy and Hungary. Probably a pretty painful day as you advance in years. 35 tugs on the ear? Get the hell away from me.

England – The Brits have something called a “fortune telling cake.” In the actual cake, there will be items such as coins and thimbles baked into it. I don’t know how much I’d be able to enjoy eating a cake that I was certain contained small pieces of dirty metal.

Germany – If you’re a man over the age of 30 and not yet married, you’re expected to sweep the steps of City Hall. On top of that, your friends throw trash all over the area. It’s designed to let the eligible women in town know you’re on the market. I would probably bring a Shop-Vac and do a lot of bitching. Not sure how many ladies I would attract.

Holland – The Dutch believe that receiving a gift wrapped in black & white is bad luck. Remember this next time you’re in Amsterdam for a friend’s birthday. You don’t want to be that guy. Or maybe you do. It’s altogether possible that we don’t know each other all that well.

Canada– In the Atlantic region, the birthday child is ambushed and their nose is greased for good luck. Ah, nothing says “Happy Birthday” like a well-intentioned ambush. The grease is placed on the nose because it is believed bad luck will slide right off of it. Apparently, Canadian bad luck has no traction.

I guess we really don’t have it all that bad with our relatively normal parties and metal object-free birthday cakes.

Weekend: Each Friday, I give you 3 Things To Do In Philly When You’re Dead – my list of stuff you can do to spend this weekend in Philadelphia as if it’s gonna be your last. This week, I’m including Monday due to that face that it’s Memorial Day Weekend.

Today (05.22) –Emerson B. – J.L. Sullivan’s – My buddy Emerson B. takes the stage, doing his acoustic hip-hop thing. He’s a great live act and will probably engage you in some witty banter. Go check him out so that you can say you saw him before he blew up and got all famous and whatnot. Also, after the show, buy him beers. 8pm

Sunday (05.24) – Brandywine River Blues Festival – Chaddsford Winery – The Philadelphia area’s most popular winery presents a day of winetasting and music. If you’re not headed to the Jersey Shore, this would be a great excuse to get out of the house, drink some wine and listen to some live blues. Noon – 6pm

Monday (05.25) – Star Trek: The Exhibition – The Franklin Institute – Wind down the long weekend with a trip into the future. Or past, depending on the scope of your imagination. “This 12,500 foot exhibition, an amalgamation of all five television and ten film series spanning over 40 years, is the ultimate opportunity to connect with iconic Star Trek moments and characters, while celebrating the creative spirit of science fiction and science that gave rise to many of today’s modern marvels.” Sounds like a perfectly acceptable way to spend an afternoon, but then again, I’m a borderline sci-fi geek.9:30am – 5pm

Quotation:Birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that the people who have the most live the longest. – Larry Lorenzoni

Gallimaufry: Here is where I usually give you three interesting stories I’ve happend upon during the course of my day. Instead, I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for reading this blog. I’ve been at it for almost three months now and I appreciate everyone of you taking the time to comment and email to let me know how much you like it. Thanks again.

Incoming: Sad news. No new posts next week. I will, however, return the following Monday with an altered format. I don’t want to get too much into it as I’ve not completely figured it out myself yet. Rest assured, all of the facets you like about the daily euneJeune will still be here everyday. Just accompanied by some new stuff. Stay tuned. Thanks again for reading.